Common Core

Common Core is a special interest takeover of education that replaces local control with national standards, treating every child as though they are the same and learn the same. These standards affect every school in the nation by allowing big business and bureaucrats into the classroom. The standards established through Common Core fail to account for innovation or critical thinking. Education should be about rewarding excellence and treating children like the unique individuals they are—not a race to mediocrity and commonality.

Hold Congress Accountable

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This Action Plan is a work in progress—designed to help you make a real difference in your community. We've worked with education experts, grassroots organizers, teachers, and concerned Americans from around the country. Now we need your input.

FreedomWorks Foundation drove more than 21,000 responses against new rules proposed by the U.S. Department of Education that would implement parts of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that was passed by Congress in December 2015 and signed into law by President Barack Obama. The comment period for the proposed rules ended on Monday, August 1.

Last week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee held an additional hearing about the proposed implementation regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). As noted before, the proposed regulations go well beyond the law passed by Congress as the Department of Education (DOEd) continues seeking to meddle in local schools. The testimony of the witnesses highlights the need for public input pushing back on the federal government’s proposed regulations, which include a potential back door route to reimpose Common Core mandates on the states.

Last month's proposed rules on school accountability are yet another reminder that it’s time for federal bureaucrats at the Department of Education to get their hands out of our education system. In its latest power grab, the department seeks to enact top-down measures that would remove authority from the hands of teachers, school districts, and state government. The regulation would impose Education Department-mandated accountability measures promulgating federal government oversight over student and school achievement.

Yesterday's proposed rules on school accountability are yet another reminder that it’s time for federal bureaucrats at the Department of Education to get their hands out of our education system. In its latest power-grab, the department seeks to enact top-down measures that would remove authority from the hands of teachers, school districts, and state government. The regulation would impose Education Department-mandated accountability measures promulgating federal government oversight over student and school achievement.

Common Core Fails, but Education Department Tries to Silence Critics
This month we are in the middle of what the Department of Education educrats have labelled as “Testing Season.” That’s right. It’s not duck season, it’s not rabbit season, it’s Testing Season. As hundreds of thousands of students opt out of Common Core testing, teachers are weighing the professional risks of speaking out against this testing. Instead of fixing the problems with Common Core and its myriad of regulations, Education Department bureaucrats have resorted to shooting the messengers – our nation’s teachers. Perhaps Testing Season should be renamed Hunting Season.

Over the last several years, the efforts of most education reformers have been largely focused on opposition to Common Core standards. This is indeed a worthy goal, but sometimes it pays to take a step back to avoid missing the forest for the trees. Common Core is a symptom of a larger disease, a disease that affects the way we think about education as a whole. Let us not delude ourselves by thinking that ending Common Core alone will suddenly solve all the problems with American schooling.

FreedomWorks was represented at the University of California in Irvine this past weekend at the California Young Americans for Liberty State Convention, in order to push our Generational Theft survey and youth outreach for our upcoming Generational Theft fly-in during the FreePAC: Morning in America Summit, in Cincinnati March 12.

Six years after ranking fifth in the nation, Ohio’s public education system has fallen to 23rd. The annual Quality Counts report by Education Week includes indicators such as test scores, education finance, and graduation rates to determine a score out of 100. The best state in each category receives 100, and all other states are graded relative to that state. Ohio received a score of 74.9, a C.